Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Jem and the Holograms Foster Care and Adoption Movie Review
When shy teenager Jerrica Benton is feeling worried about
the prospect of losing the home that she’s lived in for years she puts her
feelings into a song. She has no idea that her sister Kimber has uploaded a
video of Jerrica singing the song to the internet, and she is surprised when
the very next day she receives an offer from Erica Raymond, a powerful
entertainment executive who wants Jerrica to become her new star. While this
might let Jerrica help save her home, Erica wants Jerrica to leave behind her
family. Will Jerrica give up her sisters to save their home?
The Foster Care and
Adoption Connection
(Spoilers ahead the rest of the way)
Jerrica and her sister Kimber came to live with their Aunt
Bailey several years ago after their father died. There, they joined with
Bailey and her two long-time foster daughters Aja and Shana. Together, the five
function as a family and as good friends. Jerrica obviously considers all three
girls to be her sisters, and they demonstrate great loyalty to each other.
Jerrica is working at solving a puzzle that her father left
to her; she believes that he intends this to be a message or a gift to her, and
all of her sisters work together to help her solve it.
All four girls have been through some form of loss prior to
coming to Aunt Bailey’s home, and the stability of their home is threatened due
to financial pressures. Later, it seems that the only way to save their home
will be to lose their close relationship with Jerrica. In fact, to save the
family home,
Jerrica must leave home and take on a new name and identity.
Jerrica speaks to identity issues at the beginning of the
film, “Everyone has a secret identity, and versions of ourself that we share.
With all the identities we have access to, one question I haven’t been able to
answer is, which one is the real me?”
Strong Points
Jerrica and her sisters are very loyal to each other, and
they are loved by Aunt Bailey.
This is a positive representative of a loving, functional
foster family.
Jerrica finds success by acknowledging that there are others
who feel the way she feels – alone and scared.
Aunt Bailey resists what must have been a strong temptation
to put pressure on Jerrica to use her success to help Bailey. Jerrica wants to
help and even feels responsibility to do so, but Bailey never pushes her to feel
this way.
Jerrica finds direction for her life when she learns about
her dad. The clues he has left her lead her on a scavenger hunt of sorts.
Jerrica goes on a sort of journey of discovering her history, which kind of
reminds me of the excellent documentary Closure. Jerrica is able to remember her father by
living out the lessons he wanted her to learn, and by visiting places that were
important to him.
Jerrica and her sisters grieve their loss by visiting
Jerrica’s lost childhood home, and then say, “This is just a house. A home is
where you’re surrounded by people you love and who love you regardless (of
anything).”
Challenges
When it seems that Jerrica will choose to separate from her
sisters in order to save the home, one of her sisters tells her, “I guess I was
wrong – sisters can break up.” That one line and the concept behind it could be
jarring for kids who’ve lost family connections to foster care or adoption, as
well as for those who have not securely attached to their current family. It’s
interesting here, too, that Jerrica’s family is broken up, more or less, by
Jerrica’s new name and identity. Even in the face of this relational breach,
though, Jerrica’s sisters are loyal to her and pursue her to show that they
intend to stick together. They even express their understanding that Jerrica is
trying to do right by them.
People who have been – or who are in – foster care might
find it retraumatizing to watch a story about the stability of a foster home
being threatened.
Jerrica seems to feel responsibility to save the family
home, which is a lot to put on a teenager. Although Aunt Bailey tries to assure
Jerrica that it isn’t her responsibility, it ultimately is. Shana also feels
some responsibility for the home’s finances, and tries to use her fashion
designing skills to lessen the family’s hardship. It’s good to see kids and
teens functioning as part of the family, but many kids in foster care have had
to function with adult responsibilities and it’s important for them to know
that it’s OK to just be a kid.
Jerrica enters a romantic relationship with a young man who
had been assigned to be her chaperone. This switch in roles could be confusing
for some kids. It can be dangerous to confuse the roles of authority figure and
romantic interest.
There’s a touching scene where Jerrica sees a video of her
father talking to her and holding her. Although it might be triggering for some
kids to watch who’ve lost a parent, it does provide healing for Jerrica. I
suspect that kids who’ve lost a parent to death might find it healing while
kids who’ve lost a parent through the termination of parental rights might find
it painful.
Weak Points
Jerrica and her friends do run from the police on one
occasion; they’ve been trespassing and didn’t realize that they had tripped a
silent alarm.
Recommendations
This one reminds me of Earth to Echo quite a bit – there are
foster kids who are in danger of losing their home, who are simultaneous
learning lessons from a small white robot-like character. Jem and the Holograms
does show a very positive foster family that sticks together in the face of a
crisis, although I do wonder if the particular crisis (potentially losing the
foster home or the foster family relationships) might actually be
retraumatizing for some kids. There is probably a pretty narrow window for this
film – probably girls between the ages of 10 and 13. Kids much younger might be
more likely to be retraumatized by the theme of home instability, and kids much
older will probably be too old for the film. It doesn’t seem likely to interest
most boys. For the kids that will appreciate it, though, it’s a rare, positive
portrayal of a full, single-parent foster family.
Questions for
Discussion
How did figuring out her past help Jerrica?
Is she really Jerrica, really Jem, or both?
What makes a family, a family?
Do you have a secret identity? Who gets to know the real you?
Do you have a secret identity? Who gets to know the real you?
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ReplyDeleteMy wife and I really enjoyed that this movie showed a foster mom in a positive light. Our adopted kids loved the music and seeing a family sticking together through difficult situations. I doubt that this movie will win any academy awards but it was a fun film for foster and adoptive families.
ReplyDeleteI will say that my wife and I weren't thrilled to see one of the foster girls depicted as having stayed out all night with a boy and the scene with the kids evading the police wasn't the best role model either. However, for our children these were fleeting scenes and opportunities for parental figures to voice concerns about those behaviors in reality.
Fun movie.
Thanks, Darren! I think your analysis of the movie is spot on!
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